China Finally Gives the Lich King the Thumbs-Up

As the rest of the world of Warcraft prepares for the Cataclysm, Chinese officials have finally approved Wrath of the Lich King.

The second expansion to Blizzard's mega-MMOG World of Warcraft has been out for close to two years at this point, but the journey has been rougher for some players than others - particularly those in China. Last year, the Chinese government blocked the release of Wrath of the Lich King, and rumors abounded about a potential ban on the game entirely. The game was finally allowed to relaunch last July, but was kept in a hamstrung beta-esque state.

Of course, none of that stopped the most hardcore WoW players, who simply rolled characters on Taiwanese servers - and would go on to chalk up some world-first raid boss kills.

Now, China's Ministry of Culture (MoC) has finally given its full and official approval for Blizzard and its local partner NetEase to wholly resume operations, following a thumbs-up from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) last month. The conflict between these two entities had been at the core of the delay: Blizzard found Lich King embroiled in in-fighting between the MoC and the GAPP regarding which of them had the authority to give foreign games the go-ahead.

Congratulations to the Chinese government for catching up on PC gaming with the rest of the world. May I suggest you get a head start on approving Cataclysm this time around?